After so many 'slow' movements in food and the everyday life in general, it was about time to approach the high-speed academic life from this perspective too. In previous academic blog posts I touched upon several times the idea of 'publish or die' and other high pressures - such as bureaucracy that I do not fancy at all, regardless its shapes and aims - that taint the fragile intellectual achivements of the academia.
'Corporalization has compromised academic life and speed up the clock', complain the authors, who continue: 'In the corporate university, power is transferred from faculty to managers, economic justifications dominate and the familiar 'bottom line' eclipses pedagogical and intellectual concerns'. However, as long as the universities are part of the state system and do receive budget funding, a certain scrutinity of the funds and criteria of performance should be considered. Also, universities are part of a larger state conception on education and, thus, they prepare future members of the work force. What can be done?
The authors pledge for a reconsideration of the academic pace: 'We need time to think, and so do our students. Time for reflection and open-end inquiry.
One of the highest pressure the professors should deal with is time. Time to correct and edit papers, to apply for grants, to write books, to answer bureaucratic demands, to spend time with the family. Although several books were dedicated to the time-management issues in the academia, this does not alleviate the burden and the deep guilt for the time spent not 'at work'. Somehow, the book does not approach the issue of the high level of university graduates, compared to decades ago, which creates pressure for the market and the need of high efficiency at the university workplace too.
An interesting approach concerns the pledge for 'pleassure' at teaching, a focus on emotions and emotional intelligence in the classroom. Hard sciences as mathematics or nuclear physics, just to mention randomly, do not necessarily require such an emotional involvement, but very often during my academic expriences I noticed the lack of any personal involvement of teachers in the process of sharing knowledge.
Understanding is more important than knowledge, consider the authors, and I agree, but in the nowadays world, with so many sources of information and so many possibilities to expand the knowledge, it is very hard to resist the temptation of too much knowledge. I am going through this right now and secretely I enjoy the pleasure of not being able to find the right balance.
The book is very important for the stage of academic discussions right now, but it does not provide any specific mean of action, despite the need of more collaboration and 'conviviality' among teachers. I will be curious to find out how exactly the current culture can be institutionally challenged. Maybe then I will finally decide to make the big step of joining the academia.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange of an honest review
